Did you know German Biologist Ernst Haeckel influenced the cold world of Tron: Legacy, inspiring realistic life inside the code? A few artists from the film have shared the behind-the-scenes secrets from the Tron: Legacy set. Check out our gallery.

Fireworks

Bradley G. Munkowitz created an entire firework reel over at his site. And explained that director Kosinski wanted the crew to, "pay homage to states of 'Bit' from the original film, so each firework had to have a defined geometric structure from which the branching streams of light would emanate from." Did you feel the Bit love?

In 2010, I was asked to create the animated graphics, user interfaces, and opening titles
of TRON : LEGACY.

The Solar Sailor sequence presented many challenges for our team. We were tasked with creating several minutes of transforming and organic surfaces for Sam and Flynn to use, beginning with a high particle representation of Quorra's likeness, and venturing inside of her DNA to remove her damaged code, which heals her wounds.

We worked closely with director Joe-Ko to establish his needs aesthetically, and in the design phase earned the compliments of Steven Lisberger, director of the Tron.

The primary tools I used in this sequence were Cinema 4d, the mograph module, thinking particles and vray for c4d.

Watch a video of the Solar Sailor being created at Lead Creative Bradley G Munkowitz's website. Munkowitz explains how the team, "referenced a lot of Ernst Haeckel, the German Biologist who rendered by hand surreal organisms that resembled graphic prismatic coral structures, if you will... He was one of the primary inspirations since all of designs in the sequence had to look and behave like they could be living organisms, like flowers, while respecting a graphic structural rule book."

With reshoots on the horizon, director Joe Kosinski asked us to create several minutes of animation for the ENCOM boardroom sequence of TRON : LEGACY. GMUNK, Jake Sargeant and myself delivered a series of assets to be programmed for playback and manipulation live on set.

Using Cinema 4d and After Effects for the quickest turnaround, we were able to build out complex ideas very quickly and get them on set as fast as possible. The three of us were on set to supervise playback of our graphics, which ended in me losing a bet with commercial director David Rosenbaum. I was in denial about a bearded Cillian Murphy performing in the scene.

When Clu places Flynn's disc into his throneship, we see a particle hologram of his head for a moment that calls to mind the shroud of turin. This dissolves into a series of interlocking rings in 3d space, organizing and sorting itself before harmoniously locking into place, with data streams exiting the disc itself.

Flynn's disc download presented some very interesting and difficult challenges. Early in the design process, it was concluded that Flynn's disc needed to feel very detailed, representing a key story point, a massive and unknown amount of data.

Using a combination of cinema 4d's powerful mograph module and hand animation, I created nuanced and complex patterns of movement for the interlocking rings. This allowed me to make something which moved beautifully through space, without sacrificing detail or control over my rigs.